It may just be your wording, but I have an issue with that first paragraph. Bioware doesn't owe women special anything, they owe every individual the same respect and inclusivity on the forum regardless on gender or sexuality. Secondly, why is it that people only ever mention women as if they are the only people that suffers in any way like some kind of exclusive group? It's far harder for gay or trans people in society, when was the last time a woman was beaten, sodomized with a beer bottle, murdered and set on fire because they were a woman? Women may suffer from far higher sexual threats but men suffer more threats of violence so the complete and utter disregard for men is not exactly appreciated in a conversation on equality.
I don't think anyone can disagree that there is gender discrimination still going on but for everyone to go on about women, women women gets old after a while. Men get discriminated against, gay people, trans people, asexual, black people, asian, mexicans. I bet a poor man gets treated worse in society that a rich woman. To get my point across better allow me to change what you quoted, I shall bold the changes.
1. Everyone should be afforded equal footing in all public spaces. (I'm skipping a bunch of steps here)
2. There are those who seek to undermine assurances of equality for people in gaming spheres.
3. All right-thinking (correct-thinking) people and groups provide assurances of equality to all groups of people in public spaces (Like I said, quick, but a little sloppy).
4. BioWare is a right-thinking group (or a group that values equality and assurances of equality).
Therefore:
5. BioWare does/should assure everyone of their welcomeness in its games and on its fora.
6. One way to demonstrate that all are assured of welcome (and that those who seek to undermine these assurances are themselves unwelcome) is to represent all on official marketing, merchandise, advertising, and art.
Therefore:
7. Bioware should represent everyone, be it men, a women, gay, bi, trans or straight people on official marketing, merchandise, advertising, and art.
That I had to change anything in bold from 'women' to terms actually representing equality in this day and age is sad. As a gay man, when I see the plethora of posts from woman seeking equality for women and with no mention of anyone else as well as the complete disregard for any discrimination against other groups (yes, including men) it bugs me. You should all be asking for equality for all, not just women. We need to get everyone on an even playing field not get women there first and everyone else later.
Bolding for emphasis is mine, because what you just posted? ... Do you not read or watch the news? Are you just being sarcastic or making a twisted joke? If you read the news, you would know that yes, this sort of thing does happen to women frequently. You can blame the victim by saying "it's because she was wearing X" or "it's because she was a prostitute," etc. but in the end it boils down to "she was a woman." You're effectively saying that one victim is more of a victim than another, even if the actual violence is otherwise equivalent, down to the murder and desecration of the corpse, and/or that women become victims for other reasons (which is effectively blaming the victim). I should also point out that, not knowing if there might be actual survivors thereof in the thread, it might not be the best of topics within a thread has nothing to do with the discussion of rape.
As I said in a previous post, I'd be fine with the thread branching out to include LGBT as it pertains to marketing. Other than the romance aspect, though, I suspect it's a lot harder to market LGBT than it is to market women at women. Excluding an entire gender is a big deal. And if you acknowledge that there is rampant discrimination against, and lack of marketing to, women, how can you say that because many are focused on women means that they are necessarily ignoring the other issues? Slightly-over-half-of-the-world's-population surely includes LGBT people as well. In fact, slightly-over-half-of-them.
I should also point out that you are, in fact, posting in a thread specifically created regarding marketing the game with the Female Inquisitor, and perhaps throwing some marketing out there to the potential women fan base. I'm not sure, but that might have some bearing on why the topic of the thread is skewing heavily toward women's issues as opposed to other issues of discrimination and marginalization, and that, in fact, it might not be because the people posting find the issues of discrimination based on race, gender identity, gender preference, religious affiliation, etc. to be less important.
Do I think women deserve special treatment? No. I think we deserve equal treatment, and equal marketing. Do I think LGBT people deserve special treatment? No.* (- Edited this line after it was pointed out that I said they didn't deserve equal treatment. I meant that no one deserve special treatment, we ALL deserve equal treatment. As my next, unedited line goes on to say... Urgh. Stupid sleepy brain, cooperate with me... My excuse is I'm running on about 1.5 hours of sleep. Sorry about that.) But I would like to see LGBT folks treated equally, too. Same for people of all races, most religious beliefs (sorry, you are outta luck on the equality front if your religion involves human sacrifice or other heinous acts, 'cause not many people are gonna condone that), etc. I have, in fact, said so plenty of times on these forums in the past.
The reason that discrimination against women specifically is such a big deal is because we ladies make up more than half the population. About 51% of all people are female. Half the numbers of all other groups (except for the specifically male ones, apart from trans* women) are going to be included under the "women" heading.
Effectively saying you get tired of "women women women," belittles the issue even if you don't agree with discrimination against women (and I know you don't). It is tantamount to someone going into a thread about LGBT issues on this forum and posting that they get tired of people championing LGBT rights. It's inflammatory, derogatory, and entirely unnecessary. If you do care, then don't belittle the issue, because that's one of the biggest reasons that marginalized groups do not make any more progress than they do. Literally the ONLY way we can make progress, as any group at all, is to speak up and be heard.
I appreciate that you say you are for equal rights for all, BUT I am in no way okay with being told that an issue that is highly important and personal to me, and clearly also to many people in this thread, and to many people in real life in general, is "getting old."
Just because we find the issue of women to be important does not mean we are somehow saying other issues are irrelevant, BUT this is a thread specifically about marketing the female Inquisitor, to women. As such, expect women to be the primary focus, but you are welcome to bring up other issues as well and how they could be marketed. People have done so in past posts. If you feel LGBT issues or people of color aren't getting enough marketing (I would agree with both assertions) and this thread isn't championing that enough, then feel free to make new threads so that those issues may be discussed in depth and get the attention they deserve.
I also think if you would bother to go back and read past posts in this thread, many of us in fact do champion the inclusion of a greater variety of characters (and therefore people) in marketing, and don't just limit it to wanting to see more of the lady Inquisitor. One of the greatest complaints in this thread is that the standard protagonist is a straight white brown-haired stubbly male. Almost always. Sometimes he's beardy, instead of stubbly. We'd be thrilled with an Asian or a black person or a Native American person. Bonus points for sure if that character is also female. And yes, go ahead and show off both the straight and the gay/lesbian romances. Most of us would be cool with all of that. I suspect shaking up the marketing some, instead of always relying on the same formulaic protagonist, might be more effective at getting potential buyers' attention.
*Edited - I had originally typed that I didn't think LGBT deserved EQUAL rights, when I meant SPECIAL in place of equal, to parallel the same for women. The next line was meant to refer to thinking they deserved to be treated equally, thus I think my brain inserted the wrong word and holy whoah that was totally not what I meant to say. Urgh. So I apologize PROFUSELY who read this prior to the edit, and who might conclude I don't champion equal rights. I just don't think that one group should be accorded special treatment in an effort to make up for to past discrimination, because then you are effectively discriminating against everyone else. You can't make up for past wrongs, but what you can do is treat people equally going forward.
Retour en haut
